After spending the majority of 2017/2018 to date with my HK P30L with V1 Light LEM and my upgraded Beretta 92D DAO, this month I campaigned my Gen4 G22 and HK VP40 in IDPA matches. I performed adequately with the Gen4 G22, but had one of, if not the best personal IDPA match performance of 2018 with the VP40 yesterday.
The heavy-slided VP40 does a superb job of taming the .40, and the gun just flat-out balances beautifully, which pays some huge benefits particularly in strong- hand and weak-hand shooting. The deeper-than-P30 tang helps here too, as does empirically sorting out the best backstrap and side panel configurations for you as an individual.
Mine has the Meprolight tritium sights, which give a very usable day and night sight picture, particularly given the decent amount of light bars between front and rear sights when aligned. Ergonomically, the VP provides for an exceptional natural index and control throughout the shooting process. The "comma/dot" stippling pattern on the grip area seems to provide a more than adequate gripping surface, despite the slightly grippier "sandpaper" texture on the P30's grip areas; the VP pattern is less "grabby" on garments as well; I like both textures, but particularly for concealed carry the VP texture is slightly preferable to me.
What don't I like?
Well, the HK trigger break is perceptually softer than that of a Glock, and the reset is a bit longer. The shorter triggerpull distance combined with the soft break characteristics has me very carefully assessing the VP as a duty/threat management pistol; it's clearly eminently shootable, but I'm still a bit wary for duty use. I may try to contact the Phenix City, Alabama PD, who actually issue the VP40 and see what their experience and feedback has been, as they've had it as duty-issue for over a year at this point.
The VP lower is particularly complex, especially compared to a Glock; there are some 63 individual components that comprise the VP, compared to some 52 for the hammer-fired P30 and around 34 for a Glock. HKs in general, and the VP specifically are exceptionally well architected and manufactured, with high-quality components, but that's a lot of working parts for a SFA pistol. Other than field-stripping, and possibly disassembling the slide, for me, it'll be an HK Armorer kind of scenario for anything involving a more detailed disassembly. I'm particularly not thrilled with the trigger return spring's location and attachment, it seems vulnerable to being dislodged if you're not careful when brushing out GSR from the frame area where its located, but personally and anecdotally I haven't experienced or heard of any actual incidents of the gun being deadlined because of it (from sloppy detailed frame disasssembly/reassembly and inattention to detail in precluding it being separated from the triggerbar, yes, but from merely cleaning, no). So I'm probably needless obsessing a bit regarding it operationally.
I also wish that the Picatanny rail's forward lip did not extend beyond the muzzle line profile the way it does; it can induce re-holstering stumbles with the lip catching on the holster edges, but with my Olen holsters with their mouth profile and extended sweat guard successfully acting as a sort of re-holstering skid I've surmounted this speedbump.
A minor irritant is that to successfully separate the slide from the receiver when field-stripping, you need to concurrently push down on the slide when moving it forward off the frame after actuating the take-down lever, but in reality after you've done it successfully and remember to do it it's not a big deal.
So-another great pistol. I plan on running it in next month's IDPA match(es) to confirm my results, and then carefully assess it for suitability as a duty pistol. It is just flat-out fun to shoot, an attribute I rarely accord to a .40 pistol. I also like its user-friendly ergos, not just for myself, but also potentially for my wife, in the event that I need to hand the pistol over to her, particularly while hiking; I like the .40 as a viable wilderness defensive cartridge, as we've discussed in particular detail here on p-f (thanks, GJM).
In the past year, use-wise my VP40 took a distant second-seat to my P30L; that may change...
Best, Jon
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Originally Posted by Enel
